NI ROCKS Interview with FREDRIK WEILEBY from SPARZANZA

Thursday, 14 September 2017 08:09 | Written by NI ROCKS | | |

Swedish band Sparzanza celebrated their 20th anniversary last year with the release of “Anthology – 20 Years of Sin”. This year, they’re back with their eighth studio album “Announcing The End”, which is their first release with Despotz Records. The album is released on 13th October. I spoke to singer Fredrik Weileby via Skype on 13th September to chat about the new album. You can hear that interview, along with three tracks from the album on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 15th September. That Show also features an interview with Rick Ruhl from American band Every Mother’s Nightmare and it can be found on our MixCloud page - https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interviews-with-every-mothers-nightmare-and-sparzanza-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-15th-sept-2017/

The band are Fredrik Weileby on vocals, Calle Johannesson and Magnus Eronen on guitars, Anders Åberg on drums and Johan Carlsson on bass.

NI ROCKS – Thanks for taking some time to talk to Rock Radio NI. Sparzanza release their latest album “Announcing The End” on 13th October and we just played the single Vindication. Can you tell us something about that track?

FREDRIK – It’s really about people who justify their actions through religion. We think its a hot issue these days, but it has been an issue through history as well. People have always justified the deeds they have done through religion. To be honest we think it fuckin sucks; so that is why we wrote that song.

NI ROCKS – Where was the album recorded and who did you work with?

FREDRIK – We recorded it where we have always recorded our albums, in a studio just outside our home town called Leon Studios and Rikard Löfgren was the guy who recorded the album. But we used another guy to mix the album this time. We used Daniel Bergstrand, the guy who has mixed for In Flames. He gave us a different sound and we really liked that.

NI ROCKS – I believe you worked to a very tight writing and recording schedule. Was that a new way of working for you and why the decision to do it that way?

FREDRIK – The recording schedule wasn’t any tighter, but when we wrote the songs we went down to Spain and had about a week there. We wrote a lot of songs there. That was a different work schedule for us and it worked out really well.

NI ROCKS – Were the songs all written at that time or where there basic outlines that you had brought with you that had been developed over the last few years?

FREDRIK – Some songs on the album were written in Spain but some songs we had already written at home, so it’s kind of a mixture.

NI ROCKS – Just to be clear, the album title “Announcing The End” is no reflection on the bands future I presume?

FREDRIK – No, it is nothing to do with the band, it is just the theme of the album. It’s like the biblical Armageddon. “Announcing The End” is a reflection of the first song. The end of the world according to the bible; the seven trumpets and that kind of stuff, so that is why we called it “Announcing The End”.

NI ROCKS – This is the band’s eighth album since 2001. How would you compare it to your most recent albums?

FREDRIK – We started out as a pure stoner band and then we’ve walked more towards a more modern, metal sound. With this record we decided to take it back a little more to our roots. Maybe more like the “Banisher of the Light” album we released in 2006. We stopped and had to think who are we, what are playing, do we want to sound like Nickelback (laughs) or do we want to find our roots. And we decided to go with our roots.

NI ROCKS – The band has been around for more than 20 years now. Last year you released an Anthology, called 20 Years of Sin. Was the original two disc version limited to just 500 copies? I notice Amazon are selling a version of the album with just one disc.

FREDRIK – The CD version was always two discs and the one disc version is only released as a download. So if you want the two disc version you have to buy it on CD. It was a limited production. Maybe 500 was right, I don’t know actually (laughs). That’s probably right – 500 or 1,000 - I don’t know.

NI ROCKS – Disc 2 on the Anthology included a live track. Has any thought been given to recording a full live album?

FREDRIK – Yeah, we have talked about that a lot of times. We have to find the right time and right place to do a live album. We want to have the right opportunity to record such an album, but we have talked about it, definitely. Probably in the future.

NI ROCKS – We’ll get back to the new album now and play another track. Do you want to pick one and tell us something about it?

FREDRIK – My favourite tracks are probably “Announcing The End”, “Damnation” and “The Trigger”. I seldom discuss what the songs are about because we write the lyrics in such a way that the listener can form their own opinion on what it is about. I always enjoy hearing what people think it is about,and when they explain I say that’s right, if that song means that to you, that’s true. We don’t write lyrics for the notes. We’ve never done that and will probably never do that.

NI ROCKS –As we mentioned the new album is released on 13th October – in exactly a month’s time! Vinyl is one of the few growth areas in music sales. Will the vinyl version be released at the same time?

FREDRIK – Yes.

NI ROCKS – Are you a vinyl fan?

FREDRIK – Oh yeah. I love vinyl. I think it’s the superior music format. For me it has to do with being a movie collector as well and I prefer the VHS (laughs). Not because it’s better, because it’s not, but I love the big fat covers. It’s kind of the same with vinyls. Even though a really good vinyl player is better, sound-wise than a CD, I think.

NI ROCKS - What plans does the band have to tour to support the release?

FREDRIK – Now we have Sweden, Finland, Norway and are planning on Europe – Spain, Germany, England – and then eventually the USA actually. We’re trying to get over there and show them how rock is supposed to sound.

NI ROCKS – Any timeframe for when you’d like to be there?

FREDRIK – No, just early stage planning at the moment, but we’re definitely trying to get over. We have a lot of fans asking if we can come over and this time we will probably make it happen. I don’t know when, but we will try to make it.

NI ROCKS – Is there anywhere specifically that you’d like to play that you haven’t toured are played in so far? Japan, Australia?

FREDRIK – Yeah, all over. Anywhere, we’d play on the moon if they asked us (laughs).

NI ROCKS – Looking forward 12 or 18 months, what other plans does the band have for the near future?

FREDRIK – We have two videos coming out. The first is for “Announcing The End” and then we will probably release the video for “Vindication” – around Halloween I think because it is more like a horror video. Then we will be touring, promoting, selling stuff as long as possible, but we have already begun to write new songs for the next album. We are constantly doing stuff.

NI ROCKS – About ten years ago the band had the track “Going Down” used in the game “The Darkness” on X-Box and Playstation. How much does something like that help raise the profile of the band?

FREDRIK – It was a great help. If you look at the video on YouTube and the comments there are a lot of people who say ‘I discovered the band through the game’ and stuff. I think it has been a great help and we’d love to write more music for other games; if the deals were better. We have been asked several times after that game for our music to be used, but the deals have been so fucking lousy that we have turned them down. The contract will say we can do what we please with your song and we won’t allow that. If someone comes up with a decent proposal we’ll do it of course. Maybe in a commercial or whatever; if it promotes our music.

NI ROCKS – As we mentioned, the band has been around for 20 years now. What music was influencing the band originally and how has that changed over the last 20 years? Obviously the stoner stuff was a big thing at that time.

FREDRIK – When we started in 1996 we were very inspired by Kyuss. They weren’t a big band in ’96; they’ve got some cult status now, Stoner was a growing thing back then in the 90’s, but we would have been one of the first stoner bands in Sweden at that stage. We got our following there. I joined the band in 2000 and we staged our style a bit towards more metal as I’m not personally a stoner guy. I’m more of a Pantera guy. That’s where the Sparzanza of today got formed, when I joined I think.

NI ROCKS – What music would I be likely to hear if I was on your tour bus? Who plays the music and what do you play?